Thrilled to the core

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With a snap of her fingers, Gwyneth Paltrow tells Phillip McCarthy
how one small Apple has changed her life.

Movie roles still matter to Gwyneth Paltrow. To prove it she has
two markedly different ones out soon. She's a vampy adventurer in
one film, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow, and puts
in a poignantly personal turn in the second, Proof.

For all that, though, Paltrow's dream role is off screen,
playing mum.

These days footwear for Paltrow means booties more than Manolos.
Six months after the birth of daughter Apple in London, the actor
is more likely to be reading up on infant sleep patterns than
lobbying for glamour roles. Which is saying quite a bit because the
first of her soon-to-be-released films, Sky Captain, is a
glossy romp that teams her with Hollywood's leading man du jour,
Jude Law. In the second, the screen version of the far more
intimate stage play, Proof, she plays opposite Anthony
Hopkins.

But sorry, fellas, no leading man is going to get this girl
gushing like she does the minute the Apple subject is
mentioned.

"The second that they put her on my chest, my life changed like
that," she said, snapping her fingers. "My own ambition has sort of
gone away or, at least, I have other priorities. Not only because
of her birth, but I feel like I've accomplished so much when I was
in my 20s, and I don't have that burning desire.

"If a fantastic role comes along and I can swing it, that would
be great. But I'm not pushing. So, her daddy can do his thing and
we can go with him.

"Today's actually been the first time that I've had to work and
not be with her all day since she was born. And it's really hard.
So I'll see how I feel about going back to work, and what I'm going
to do, and when, and just try and not judge myself with whatever I
decide."

Apple's daddy, of course, is the frontman of British band
Coldplay, Chris Martin, 27, and Paltrow's quite prepared to gush
about him too ("He is good at changing diapers," she said. "But he
doesn't like me to say so."). The proud parents married five months
before Apple's birth, shotgun-style, and set up house in London
where Paltrow has friends among other expatriate American,
yoga-loving, macrobiotic-dieting celebrity mums such as Madonna.
Perhaps because Apple was born in London where they're big on
lineage and pedigree the name the couple gave their daughter seemed
to prompt as much interest as whether mother and daughter were
doing well. At the time Paltrow, 32, seemed to get a bit
exasperated by the obsession, but on that subject, too, she's more
laid-back now. "I didn't decide on the name, her daddy named her,"
she said. "I just liked the name. I got to give her her second
name, Blythe, after my mother."

Paltrow was always one of the svelte, young Hollywood things who
kept any hint of unwanted kilos at bay with a spartan combo of yoga
and lettuce leaves. Mercifully, it didn't make her an entrant in
the current Hollywood contest for shedding pregnancy pounds in
record time. In New York today to be interviewed, she's a little
broader and a little curvier. Nor has she shed all of the 15.9
kilograms she put on while pregnant.

"I'm not going to lose the weight because someone expects me
to," she said. "I want to do what's healthy for me and for her. My
mother told me: 'You know, you can't diet when you're breastfeeding
and don't try.' I didn't lose any weight at all for three months. I
started to exercise again a little bit but, you know, you stay 10
or 15 pounds [4.5 to seven kilograms] overweight while you're
breastfeeding that's just the way it is. It's all about her
nutrition. I'm just trying to enjoy my new curves." And her new
mothering role. When Paltrow appeared on a recent Oprah
show she got a standing ovation from the audience when she revealed
she didn't have a nanny.

"I was surprised by that," she said. "I feel that it's not
something that should be applauded. I don't feel like I'm a martyr
because I don't have a nanny, I really love being with her. We had
a baby nurse for the first few weeks of her life, who helped me
figure everything out and who showed me how to do everything and
bathe her, get her on a schedule. So I recognise that I am in the
fortunate position of being able to afford help if I need it and
not all mothers can do that.

"I'm sure if I do go back to work, I will have to have a nanny,
so right now I'm just cherishing being with her while I can. But
I'm not like a superhero. If I want to get a massage, I ask her
daddy to watch her, or we get a babysitter if we want to have
dinner."

Paltrow's shift from Oscar winner at 26 (for Shakespeare In
Love) to stay-at-home mum seems to have started with the death
of her father in 2002. His passing hit her hard and she described
the changes in her life since, from Hollywood's glamour girl to a
woman absorbed in her family, as a continuous "transition".

She wanted to do the film version of Proof she plays a
daughter whose brilliant mathematician father (Hopkins) has
recently died because it provided closure to her father's death.
Sky Captain, she said, was a bit more frivolous. It was
Jude Law who first asked her to play his love interest and sparring
partner, girl reporter Polly Perkins. It sounded like a Lauren
Bacall-Humphrey Bogart tango across the screen and Paltrow couldn't
resist.

"I got over the need to do everything that came along when my
dad died," she said. "It turned out to be good practice for now. If
something resonates with me, or if it might be fun and I can
squeeze it in, I'll say yes. Otherwise I'll stay home and watch my
daughter grow."

Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow is released on
February 3 and Proof later in 2005.

The long filmography of the Law

Gwyneth Paltrow, married lady though she is, admitted to having
had the tiniest crush on her Sky Captain co-star Jude Law.
She played his girlfriend in The Talented Mr Ripley in
1999 when he was married and she wasn't. And these days, after all,
they both call London home. So when Law called her up and asked her
to play smouldering reporter and adventurer Polly Perkins never
above using her wiles to stiletto both her story and her man it
wasn't a hard sell.

"He looks like a dream and he's a good actor, too," she said. "I
really love him as a person. I loved working with him. It was
really easy. He's a pleasure to be with and, yes, a big reason to
do the film, apart from wearing Stella McCartney's costumes and
heels, was because he was playing a real leading man and I wanted
to support him in it.

"We had a really good working relationship. We have an ease
between us and good chemistry."

They also have quite a lot in common these days as parents.
While Law is divorced from his actor wife Sadie Frost and seen out
and about with his Alfie co-star Sienna Miller he remains
a determinedly hands-on dad to his three children with Frost.

He's also the movies man of the moment, with roles in six films
from leading-man parts to high-profile cameos that are either
already out in the US or about to be released. His big turn has
been reprising the Michael Caine role in Alfie (to be
released in Australia on January 13), reworked as a womanising
London cad in Manhattan. He has a big dramatic part opposite
Natalie Portman and Julia Roberts in Closer (releasing
January 27) and he plays legendary Australian actor Errol Flynn in
Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (releasing February 10.)